Game of Thrones 3:9 Aftermath: I Hear Red Wedding Planners Get Paid Less…

Posted on June 4, 2013 by geelw

Amusingly enough, I used to work in a small indie game shop and there was a customer who was a big fan of the GoT books who came in one day in a lousy mood about the original version of that “Red Wedding” sequence (which I found out after some poking around yesterday) was actually much worse in the books (as well as a bit more visually twisted).

Anyway, it’s been really interesting to hear and see people who didn’t read the books go totally bat-crap crazy over the episode, as it’s been known all along that no one is really safe from an untimely demise. Sure, it was definitely shocking (and how!), but that ticking clock for the characters probably has a few more stops to make before all is said and done…

That said, this is probably one of the few episodes I won’t watch multiple times, as I usually end up catching them again On Demand when I’ve got a free hour or so to spare.

Shout Factory Keeps The 70’s Rolling Along With Some Genre Classics…

Posted on June 4, 2013 by geelw

Seeing these three films pop up on the Shout Factory site almost makes me feel old, except for they got me excited that they’re back in circulation, so I’m bouncing around the room. OK, not so much at my age… but any activity is good when you get this creaky. I added the road movie from hell Race With the Devil as a Random Film of the Week last year, but haven’t got around to Electra Glide in Blue (a really good, quirky cop flick with one of those depressing 70’s endings) and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, a pretty cool extended car chase flick with some great action and yep, another smasher of an ending sequence.

Hmmm, with all this road wreckage, wild hippie women, devil worshipers doing their thing in the woods and assorted traffic cops going through really lousy workdays, it’s a wonder real people drove ANYWHERE during this period. Well, they had to go to the movies too, so I’d gather an evening at the drive-in for a triple feature of all three might have been happening somewhere out there back in the day…

Anyway, that’s two more films I’ll need to add to the RFotW pile – stay tuned…

Now Playing: Remember Me (and Other Stuff)…

Posted on June 4, 2013 by geelw

Of course, I had to run out early on Friday evening and zoomed past the UPS truck a block away that I SHOULD have hung around a few minutes to bug the driver about any packages that were mine on board, but, oh well. Anyway, Remember Me popped up again yesterday and I’ve been playing it since (which is why there weren’t a load of posts happening, folks). Anyway, it’s quite a blast and yep, a review is incoming probably tomorrow. So far, it’s quite original, somewhat linear, but very gorgeous in a “this is the game you make when your studio is in Paris!” kind of way.

Back in a bit – spoiler: the score will be good unless the game falls apart in what looks like the last few areas I’ll be getting back to soon enough. As for “Other Stuff”, that’s not a game – it’s just my queue stacked up with a bunch of games I’ll try to get to before the E3 crunch steamrolls me…

Random Indie Game of the Week: DreadOut

Posted on June 3, 2013 by geelw

Amusingly and ironically enough, one of the scariest work-in progress games I’ve played this year comes from a developer named Digital Happiness. Based out of Indonesia, this small studio is in the process of polishing up their first game, DreadOut, a nicely frightening homage to Tecmo’s criminally neglected Fatal Frame series with a modern (and optionally social) twist.

DH is using the extremely versatile Unity game engine, a wonder tool for a number of small to large studios that can pump out some fantastic visuals the can be scaled to run an a wide range of computers and devices. The speed at which this has come together combined with the quality of the work is pretty astonishing. I believe Digital Happiness happens to be in the CG animation business or something, and you can see this in the character art, animation and general pleasingly realistic style of the visuals.
Continue reading →

Orphan Black Season One: I Hope Tatiana Maslany Has A Lot of Shelf Space…

Posted on June 3, 2013 by geelw

If you missed out on BBC America’s incredible sci-fi drama series Orphan Black because you were unsure about whether or not it would be any good, go find out how to (legally) check this show out and prepare to be amazed. Maslany’s portrayal of (so far) seven different cloned characters is amazing, especially in scenes she shares with herself (through some excellent CG effects and body doubling). It’s not just the different hairstyles, wigs and makeup either. Each of the clones has a separate personality and life which the actress does a remarkable job of portraying to perfection.

Continue reading →

Random Film of the Weekend (Too): Time After Time

Posted on June 3, 2013 by geelw

(thanks, warnervod!)

Amusingly enough, this RFoTW post was going to be about Somewhere in Time, but I’d mistakenly typed in Time After Time as the title of that film when doing a search for the poster, looked at the results and remembered that while SoT is indeed a fine (and highly underrated) gem, TAT is more pure fun to watch and does a few more interesting things with its characters and plot as it takes them from past to present.

Adding some unique twists to the time travel and Jack the Ripper mythologies, it combines mystery, drama, action and romance with bits of comedy that work despite some first time director flaws in the ointment. Oh, and it’s a grand little science fiction film that works because you’re sucked in so quickly and completely forget the fantastic elements being so farfetched thanks to the story, characters and direction making it so real…
Continue reading →

Game of Thrones 3:10 Preview: Real Party Poopers and More Deep S#!t…

Posted on June 3, 2013 by geelw

Well… jeez. I had a bunch of Wedding Crashers jokes prepared when that banquet sequence began, but those went to The Honeymoon Killers jokes in rapid succession and then no jokes by the time things were done. That was rough. Hey, any episode of a show with no music during the end credits is a bad sign. Well, they DID say this season was going to have a lot of characters killed off, but wow, unemployment checks for a good chunk of the Starks? Well, raise a cup for a few “ghost” appearances, I say (you’re supposed to laugh, as it’s a pun on “guest” appearances. Ha and ha…)- Episode 10 should be even more of a knock to the skull, I bet. Still, it has to be noted that Ned Stark lost his head before the finale and we’re all still watching. Hell, at this rate, Arya’s going to be one pretty pissed off teenager with a long, long list of people to kill… if she’s even around by the time Season 4 kicks in.

Killzone: Shadow Fall Update: Guerrilla’s in the Midst (and Not Monkeying Around)…

Posted on June 2, 2013 by geelw

Well, it sure looks like Killzone: Shadow Fall is going to be another marquee title for Sony’s new console and as you can see here, the guys and gals at Guerrilla Games are making sure series fans get their money’s worth and then some. What’s really impressive here is despite being yet another shooter in a very well-packed genre full of them, if you follow the game from its first chapter on the PS2, you can see the developer maturing as they lay down the series’ trajectory as the focus shifts from one side to another. Win or lose, war is indeed hell for both sides at the end of the day…

Memo to Microsoft: You Can’t Rewrite History By Erasing It…

Posted on June 2, 2013 by geelw

I was going to save this (or a variation of this) for after Microsoft’s E3 press conference, but I may as well do some (ugh) speculation based on their current mine cart zooming to the cliff full of baskets of freshly laid rotten egg ideas.

Actually, I’ll lay some new-age Nostradumbass foundation here and follow up after the show (or during if I’m able to recover from whatever “major game announcements” they throw into the pot that either make or break their new console as a purchase around these parts.

Anyway, for some insane reason, Microsoft keeps wanting to ignore, avoid or otherwise stamp out its gaming history in favor of shipping out a new console that does even more to be less of a gaming system and more of a cable box with a gaming “service” added in, an always connected all-seeing eye that some are already seeing as having serious privacy rights issues and what’s looking like a near complete focus on North American entertainment tastes, well… sure, go right on ahead. I still have three working Xboxes, two dead Xbox 360’s (and when your first console is better made than your second… that’s a bit of an issue) and a nice chunk of physical media to fall back on.

Sure, you’ll get sales from those who want to buy into your service plans and monetization schemes, but but at what REAL cost at the end of the day? You can indeed keep those shareholders and non-gaming investors and overpaid analysts happy all you want, but torching the forest and salting the ground behind you means no one will remember that Microsoft once (at least outside the U.S. of A.) was KEY is helping create a more important part of game history at one point in the faraway past.

That would be the MSX and its variants and not the Xbox, by the way.

More sane over-thought processing to come during or after E3…

The Killing 3(01): Yes, Those Hooks Are Still Quite Sharp…

Posted on June 2, 2013 by geelw

Well, so much for the reborn series being a dud, hmmm? I did myself a nice and tease-dipped favor and switched over to Game of Thrones just so I can catch the second hour of The Killing when it reruns later tonight. I don’t mind the tension of holding out, as GoT is going to keep it high (this is the penultimate episode this season) and I can knock out an article or three in that extra hour. I actually save Mad Men for viewing later in the week through Free on Demand, as that show is a bit too densely packed with characters and plot to sit through in a single sitting (and this latest season is a bit bulky with gloom).